


The Greatest Man I Never Knew

by fangirlforeverything



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Based on the pictures of Kat and Stephen during filming of the crossover, Crisis on Infinite Earths speculation, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-25
Updated: 2019-10-25
Packaged: 2021-01-03 03:43:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21172868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fangirlforeverything/pseuds/fangirlforeverything
Summary: For a large part of Mia Smoak’s life, she thought about what she would say to her father if she could meet him. It used to be questions about him and his life that her mother either didn’t know or was too heartbroken to answer. After her mother going missing and then finding her with her newly discovered brother, Mia’s questions had become more like ‘why did you keep me away from my brother?’, ‘are you really a hero?’, and most importantly ‘why did you leave me?’.So having the being responsible for her father abandoning his family in front of her asking her to help him was not high on Mia’s to-do list.





	The Greatest Man I Never Knew

For a large part of Mia Smoak’s life, she thought about what she would say to her father if she could meet him. It used to be questions about him and his life that her mother either didn’t know or was too heartbroken to answer. After her mother going missing and then finding her with her newly discovered brother, Mia’s questions had become more like ‘why did you keep me away from my brother?’, ‘are you really a hero?’, and most importantly ‘why did you leave me?’.

So having the being responsible for her father abandoning his family in front of her asking her to help him was not high on Mia’s to-do list.

“Why should help you?” Mia growled out, with her bow and arrow pointed directly at the larger than life man. His eyes stared impassively at her. If wasn’t for his mouth moving, it could be argued his face had never moved. The Monitor had appeared in front of her while she was alone in the bunker, after a failed mission against the Deathstroke Gang.

“The heroes of 2019 are facing a Crisis unlike any other.” His voice boomed out across the empty space. Mia glared back at him.

“I’m still not hearing a reason to help the man that took my father from me.”

“Oliver Queen sacrificed his life to save this world. If you don’t want that sacrifice to be for nothing, you must come with me.” The Monitor eyed her as Mia slowly lowered her bow. He stepped closer to her. “If the Crisis is meant to be stopped, Oliver Queen needs his daughter at his side.”

Mia scowled.

“Fine. But don’t think for a second I’m doing this for you.”

The empty room in Star Labs seemed to echo with every harsh breath that Oliver took. He was sitting on the same steps he and Felicity argued on two years ago.

God. Had it really only been two years since that moment? Two years since they fought Nazis and then got married by their best friend. Their two-year anniversary and he was thousands of miles away from her and their daughter.

The other heroes were off in the main room trying to brainstorm ideas while Oliver stepped away and took a moment for himself.

A knock from behind him startled Oliver. He turned quickly to see Barry smiling sheepishly at him from the entrance of the room. Oliver let out a deep breath and turned back around, ignoring Barry as he sat down next to him. The two heroes stayed silent for a few minutes before Barry broke the silence.

“What’s that?” He gestured towards Oliver’s hands.

Oliver had almost forgotten about the picture of Felicity and Mia that he had clenched in his hands. Even though Mia was a secret to all of their friends and family, Oliver handed the picture over to Barry. The speedster’s eyes widened and looked questioningly back at him.

“Oliver…”

“Her name is Mia.” Oliver choked out around the rapid forming tears, looking away from his friend.

“She’s beautiful.” Barry replied quietly, handing the picture back. Oliver nodded slowly, unable to speak around the lump in his throat. “We’re going to stop Crisis, Oliver, and then you’ll see your daughter again.”

A humorless laugh broke out from Oliver’s throat. He rubbed his hands over his eyes.

“The Monitor doesn’t disclose a lot of information.” Oliver sighed, glancing over at a confused Barry. “But he has always made one thing clear. The Crisis is the end of the line for me.”

A few seconds passed as a look of understanding passed Barry’s face.

“You too, huh?” Barry gave him a sad smile when Oliver looked over. Barry let out a deep breath. “‘To stop the Crisis, Barry Allen must die.’ Looks like the both of us know our futures.”

“Do you think it’s worth it?” Oliver asked the speedster while looking down at the picture and rubbing over the faces of his family.

“It has to be, Oliver. For your family and mine.”

The pairs sits in silence for a few minutes, sharing in the pain of their futures. The stillness was eventually broken by Barry standing and placing a comforting hand on Oliver’s shoulder before exiting the way he had came. Oliver rubbed his thumb over tiny Mia’s face.

“I love you, Mia.”

Oliver slowly stood, letting his old and worn bones stretch, but before he could follow after Barry, a breech opened up in front of him. Quite quickly the Monitor appeared in front of him.

“What now?” Oliver growled, already sick of whatever the Monitor had come to say to him. The being eyed the archer.

“The Crisis is going to be harder than first thought. You need help.” His commanding voice boomed through Oliver’s head.

The Monitor stepped to the side, and Oliver could see a young blonde woman who he hadn’t noticed before. Her eyes were wide with surprise, and as she made an aborted step forward, Oliver couldn’t help but feel familiar towards her. The woman opened her mouth and finally spoke, knocking the breath out of Oliver.

“Dad?”

Maybe Mia should have made the Monitor explain what he meant by helping, because she definitely doesn’t remember meeting her long-gone father being a part of the deal.

Her father stood in front of her, staring at her probably in the same way she was staring at him. Oliver Queen looked ragged and worn out, but Mia couldn’t care less. This was the first time she had ever laid eyes on her father in person.

“I have brought your daughter from the future to make sure that you actually stop the Crisis.” The Monitor broke the silence but neither father nor daughter paid him any attention.

“Mia?” Oliver quietly asked, unsure if he was really looking at his daughter. Mia stilled and watched as her father seemed to come to the conclusion that the Monitor wasn’t lying about her identity. Before she could say anything else, Oliver’s face turned into a glare which was directed to the being that had brought her here. “She doesn’t belong here.”

A sucker punch to her stomach would have hurt less.

“Your daughter is a part of this, Oliver.” The Monitor replied, unimpressed. With a press to his chest, a breech opened up behind the man. “If you wish to succeed, you will need her help.”

With that, The Monitor was gone, and Mia was alone with her father. The father-daughter paired stood still, quietly watching the other. Multiple emotions ran through Mia, but she couldn’t decide which to feel first.

“You’ve gotten so big.” Oliver quietly remarked after a few seconds. With that, Mia settled on an emotion. Anger.

“That’s what happens when you don’t see someone since they were a baby.” She seethed, sending a glare towards her father who looked like he had been backhanded.

“Mia, I can’t begin to tell you how sorry I am for that, but there are forces working here that you can’t understand.” Oliver implored, taking a few steps towards her. Mia scoffed.

“Don’t understand what? Your impending Crisis?” Mia sarcastically spoke. Oliver frowned at his daughter. “What about the family you left behind? Like how I heard Mom crying herself to sleep more often than not, or how I only just discovered I had brother that my parents were keeping from me, or how you left me!”

By the end of Mia’s speech, her voice cracked and tears formed in her eyes. She turned her head away from her father and tried to keep the tears from falling. A sound from in front of her warned her of her father’s approach seconds before his large hands wrapped gently around her face. Oliver moved her face so the two of them were looking eye to eye. Mia could see tears in her father’s eyes.

“Every day since I left your side, I wanted to return. Your mother, you, and William mean everything to me. I love you all so much.” Oliver’s voice broke as a few tears fell down his face. He squeezed her face gently. “It’s because I love you much that I had to do this, Mia. Your life is the most important thing to me.”

The sob that Mia had held inside since she first laid eyes on her father broke out just as Mia dove forward into an embrace with her father. The pair held onto each other as they both cried. Mia knew that this was the first time she had hugged her father, but somehow her father’s arms were so comforting that it felt like she had spent her entire life being comforted by them.

When the tears eventually dried, Oliver pulled back to place a kiss on her forehead. He gave her a small smile and rubbed a tear off her face. Mia let out a small chuckle at the absurdity of the situation.

“You look so much like your mother.” Oliver grinned. Mia rolled her eyes and stepped out of her father’s arms.

“Mom always used to say that I looked so much like her and acted exactly like you.” She huffed out a breath. An ache in her chest reminded her of the pain of her mother’s disappearance earlier in the year.

“Your mom, is she…” Oliver trailed off. The smile dropped off of Mia’s face. She glanced away from her father, and when she looked back he had a frown on his face like he knew what she was about to say.

Before she could answer her father, a male voice boomed out from a speaker in the ceiling.

“Oliver, you might want to come back. We think we figured it out.”

Mia’s father seemed to steel himself, impressing Mia with his ability to compartmentalize. He looked down at her.

“We have a Crisis to stop.”


End file.
